grimmace at volrath's stronghold in opening hand? idk man, cant say i've ever done that. volrath's is one of those cards that occasionally wins u games outright, those tend to be keepers.
If you really need a removal spell, you could play a terminus, or the other thing that miracles for one white and removes a creature. Awesome with some of your tutors. Glad to see some interest in this deck, even if I have mostly moved to multiplayer (although i still maintain a sideboard for 1 v 1)
If you really need a removal spell, you could play a terminus, or the other thing that miracles for one white and removes a creature. Awesome with some of your tutors. Glad to see some interest in this deck, even if I have mostly moved to multiplayer (although i still maintain a sideboard for 1 v 1)
'competitive teysa' is kind of like 'competitive axlerod gunnerson'
I'm not really sure about this comparison. Is that like saying Teysa is not competitive? Because Teysa can be quite strong, just by all the combos you have access to.
Anyhow, I've been playing Lingering Souls and have not been disappointed with it. It's four bodies for cheap, and gives you things to sac if need be.
Also Umezawa's Jitte has been invaluable to me. It just controls other aggressive decks so well, and its a stoneforge target.
i think there may be some confusion. when i say 'competitive' i mean you could play this in a tournament and have a hope of winning. In this sense, teysa is not 'competitive'
I haven't updated this list in over two years now, but it's nice to see that people around here still want to play Teysa. And FYI, while Teysa may be a far cry from being a top-tier general, she's plenty viable. I have a few friends over in France that have evolved this list quite a bit, and to a competitive quality. So please, take your ignorance elsewhere.
I haven't updated this list in over two years now, but it's nice to see that people around here still want to play Teysa. And FYI, while Teysa may be a far cry from being a top-tier general, she's plenty viable. I have a few friends over in France that have evolved this list quite a bit, and to a competitive quality. So please, take your ignorance elsewhere.
Hey MCR! Can we see a new list by chance? I have a multiplayer Ghost Council deck that I am going to switch over to a 1v1 Teysa list. =D
Yes, I would love to see those decklists as well as your opinions on each of them. Having grown tired of Legacy I've been stripping down my Legacy decks and now I have a surplus of EDH staples that need a home in EDH decks. B/W has always been my favored color combination and Orzhov is a perfect fit.
i have a version that consists of a much lower mana curve. no high end creatures except sun titan and abuses drain effects like blood artist and what not.it has the combo pieces in there but the combo is only secondary to the synergy it provides. i like to play from the GY without being reanimate.dec or dredge.dec
with extort soon to role out i think my vision of this deck will receive a significant boost in power.
I haven't seen it written in the primer and this is something I realized recently so it might be worth noticing: Teysa + Karmic + Reveillark is infinite creature removal if you put Teysa in the graveyard
Hey MCR! Can we see a new list by chance? I have a multiplayer Ghost Council deck that I am going to switch over to a 1v1 Teysa list. =D
Heya! I haven't been testing Teysa at all for the past...when was this primer written? 2 years ago? lol. Moondust has a new and fresher Teysa list that has been tuned for the evolved metagame. It looks quite good and I would like to work on it sometime in the future as a personal pet project. My funsies deck, for lack of better words
I would definitely consider playing BW in a tournament, but if my main goal is to win, I'd still pick a more sound general. That's not taking anything away from Teysa though - she'll just take a bit more work to win with!
Yes, I would love to see those decklists as well as your opinions on each of them. Having grown tired of Legacy I've been stripping down my Legacy decks and now I have a surplus of EDH staples that need a home in EDH decks. B/W has always been my favored color combination and Orzhov is a perfect fit.
The list is on the way. I'm not going to work on it right away as I have to tune a few other decks I've been working on.
i have a version that consists of a much lower mana curve. no high end creatures except sun titan and abuses drain effects like blood artist and what not.it has the combo pieces in there but the combo is only secondary to the synergy it provides. i like to play from the GY without being reanimate.dec or dredge.dec
with extort soon to role out i think my vision of this deck will receive a significant boost in power.
I like that you've taken the time to look at the list, but this thing is seriously out of date. I mean, look at the amount of banned cards in it haha. The metagame has changed drastically, and so will the list. Again, Moondust has a pretty sick updated version that I will be tuning for fun soon.
I haven't seen it written in the primer and this is something I realized recently so it might be worth noticing: Teysa + Karmic + Reveillark is infinite creature removal if you put Teysa in the graveyard
Haha! Good catch! I didn't even notice this! It's crazy that people still find out new things about this deck years after its inception.
Sorry for the mega necro. All this talk about Obzedat made me want to revisit some old decklists. I think this one is a pretty fun one that's in dire need of an update. So again, let me contact Moondust and this thing should be dusted off and updated in the near future
Heya! I haven't been testing Teysa at all for the past...when was this primer written? 2 years ago? lol. Moondust has a new and fresher Teysa list that has been tuned for the evolved metagame. It looks quite good and I would like to work on it sometime in the future as a personal pet project. My funsies deck, for lack of better words
I would definitely consider playing BW in a tournament, but if my main goal is to win, I'd still pick a more sound general. That's not taking anything away from Teysa though - she'll just take a bit more work to win with!
The list is on the way. I'm not going to work on it right away as I have to tune a few other decks I've been working on.
I like that you've taken the time to look at the list, but this thing is seriously out of date. I mean, look at the amount of banned cards in it haha. The metagame has changed drastically, and so will the list. Again, Moondust has a pretty sick updated version that I will be tuning for fun soon.
Haha! Good catch! I didn't even notice this! It's crazy that people still find out new things about this deck years after its inception.
Sorry for the mega necro. All this talk about Obzedat made me want to revisit some old decklists. I think this one is a pretty fun one that's in dire need of an update. So again, let me contact Moondust and this thing should be dusted off and updated in the near future
Oops! Didn't even see how old this thread was!
#necroed thread
As someone who has recently gotten into Duel Commander, I can take a crack at the revival bit for now. I really want to find some like-minded individuals to bounce ideas off, so what better way to get it going? Teysa's the only deck I play because I love the color combination and designing new EDH decks from scratch is simply too much work.
By "gotten into Duel Commander" I mean I made a token attempt to modify my multiplayer list (removing banned 1v1 cards with similar goodstuff) to play a friend and got my ass beat hard when I realized that 1v1 is much too quick for the token-based MP list I run. Well, I won't stand for getting whooped that badly, so I had work to do.
Here's what I started with, using the French/DC ban list. Making liberal use of hide tags to keep what will be a very long post organized and easy-to-read.
I've read through the old topics and stuff and decided that the reanimator/combo route is probably the best way to go, especially since Painter's Servant isn't banned. <3 So what are some of the issues I've read about? A little slow, problems with colors, need ample disruption to protect against blue decks especially (and also simply faster combos).
I started by planning what I wanted to get out of the deck. The basic Teysa deck combos include:
1) TEYSA + Darkest Hour / Painter's Servant + sac outlet [+ dude to start the chain] = infinite whatever
e.g. Blasting Station = infinite pings
Altar of Dementia = infinite mill
Phyrexian Altar = infinite mana
Carrion Feeder = infinitely large dude
In the end, I decided to include 1, 3, 4 in my initial decklist. Why? Iona herself is a top-tier reanimation target and the Painter combo is the easiest one to pull off from there, so it's an easy inclusion. At this point, Teysa just needs a sac outlet to be included in the combo shenanigans and is a redundancy that beats GY hate.... also justifies use of Teysa as a general. ;/ Reveillark + Guide are good cards on their own and serve as a redundant combo that doesn't rely on Painter. Teysa herself can also be the sac outlet in that one, since they're all white creatures and she's 2 Power, for infinite removal (not a win).
Blasting Station is the sac outlet of choice because it wins on its own, Altar of Dementia was included as a protective redundancy. (Darkest Hour is also a tougher-to-answer redundancy to Painter in Teysa's combo.) Ashnod's and Phy. Altars don't win on their own, you need an additional mana dump to go with them while stuff like Feeder and Fallen Ideal require successfully swinging through.
I didn't include Combo #2 because it's basically a three-card combo. If you want to use Phyrexian Altar + :xmana:-spell as the gamewinner for #1 then you're just adding one more card (the Traitor), however that takes one more card to begin with (BS/AoD don't need the :xmana:-spell). Yosei wasn't included because he's simply an inferior reanimation option and Sun Titan is a better standalone option.
Where to start?
Alright, I have the basic shell in place. The first question, of course, is which reanimators to include!
Reanimate: Slightly cheaper than other non-Enchant alternatives, MUCH cheaper than ones that target opponent's GY. Animate Dead: Better than Dance of the Dead if you're not comboing out since it doesn't cost you two mana per turn to keep swinging in, else equivalent. Better than Exhume and Soul Exchange for reasons I will explain below. Victimize: Gets two dudes out at once, aka grabs both Iona and Painter after a Buried Alive or if hardcast Painter gets removed. Unburial Rites: Can be cast from GY with Flashback, handy with Entomb. Living Death: Gets multiple dudes at once. Big bonus is it doubles as a sweeper, the fact it's Black is even better since most sweepers are white in case Iona is turned against me.
Those are the ones I included with reasons. Why Animate Dead over the two-mana Sorceries? I like having the Enchant available. It can be found by White's tutors, so it's easier to dig for, and as a permanent it can be recurred by Sun Titan. Like Unburial Rites being GY-castable, it just gives me more options. Necromancy and Recurring Nightmare are usable too but I have enough reanimators at this point.
What next?
My next step was obvious staples. First off, draw-dig power for consistency. The beauty of black is tons of unrestricted tutors, of which I included all of them <4 CMC. Cruel Tutor is a bit expensive for the on-top clause (sadly Vampiric Tutor and Imperial Seal are banned) but I've tentatively included it. White's two tutors also made it of course and as a reanimator deck, Entomb and Buried Alive also made the cut.
Shred Memory and Dimir Machinations are included solely for their power as Transmute tutors. I felt they find enough relevant cards to be useful, including a hard tutor if you just need something they can't grab and Shred Memory can also be GY hate in a pinch.
Shred Memory finds (2 CMC): Altar, Signet, Scroll Rack, Jitte, Grand Abolisher, Painter, Stoneforge Mystic, Animate Dead, Bitterblossom, Seal of Cleansing, Gerrard's Verdict, Hymn to Tourach, Revoke Existence + other tutors
Both of them find combo pieces, ramp, answers, and disruption. Dimir House Guard (4 CMC) and Brainspoil (5 CMC) don't find enough other useful cards to be included. They also can't grab other tutors if you absolutely need a card you can't transmute for.
Skullclamp is pretty dumb when you're producing tokens like Teysa can and, well, Griselbrand in a reanimator deck... by far the two strongest draw engines. Phyrexian Arena is the next obvious pick, consistent and grabable with Rector. Sadly Necropotence is banned. :/
Stoneforge Mystic serves as a Skullclamp tutor and doubles as a sac outlet for various purposes (some tutors and starting combo engines), Steelshaper's Gift is another one. Jitte and SoFaF are alternative targets so the tutors aren't dead if I already have 'clamp. Jitte I feel serves an important purpose. It greatly enables a Plan B to victory, simply aggroing out. It can also gain life if I get low from Grissy / BB / enemy attacks and is colorless removal in the face of pro-white/black or Iona. SoFaF is a strong accelerant plus hand disruption if allowed to hit.
I've honestly never liked Scroll Rack but I decided to give it a chance since everyone else seems to love it and it plays well with Land Tax + Wayfarer. Probably better than any of Black's "Draw X for X life" Sorceries at any rate. Land Tax and Wayfarer are obviously great. Bob and Dark Tutelage were passed on the fear I would probably kill myself too quickly between expensive reanimation targets and other life drain effects.
After that?
Well after I added the equipment package, I felt a token subtheme was most appropriate. I need dudes to abuse Skullclamp anyway, as a cost for some cards and to start Teysa's combo. What better way? The fact they can slow down aggro decks and enable my own aggro plan as an alternate win-con, including carry Jitte/Sword, are nice bonuses that push me over. In goes Bitterblossom and the two token 'walkers, all very strong persistent and standalone threats.
At this point, I just need some disruption and removal to finish. Since a lot of people in the past have stated the importance of discard (hand disruption) to beat blue and slow down faster combo decks, I started there. Ultimately, I included these:
Liliana of the Veil: Repeatable and tough to answer, the symmetrical nature can be abused with reanimation targets or ignored with Land Tax or Skullclamp going strong. She can also edict, versatility! Cabal Therapy: Flashback ensures the 1-for-1 if nothing else, the fact it can 2fer and be cast off Entomb is why I choose it over other 1-CMC options. Raven's Crime: Hits land and fueled by Land Tax and Wayfarer, it might be the single best discard spell for this deck. Gerrard's Verdict: 2fer for two mana, minor source of lifegain. Hymn to Tourach: 2fer for two mana and random discard. Sword: If it connects. ;[
Basically, I just chose the most efficient discard spells but there are still many more options out there. I can understand the appeal of the targetted ones, like Thoughtseize, as they're safer bets for slowing down the opponent's early plays but I like the versatility of the two I chose. At 2+ CMC, I don't understand why anyone would still play cards like Castigate" target="blank">Castigate when there's actual card advantage to be had from GV/Hymn. I don't like the two dudes, Tidehollow Sculler and Mesmeric Fiend, for their temporary nature and their bodies aren't necessary to jumpstart Teysa's combo when I have token engines, though they do have some advantages as well. They're mean with Sun Titan and a sac engine, plus Sculler is an Artifact.
Other options I like are Stupor and Bog Down with the advantage on Mind Rot clones. Sadistic Hypnotist is expensive but the best mass dump if it gets through, plus it's a reanimate target. Identity Crisis is perhaps cost-prohibitive but doubles as GY hate. Liliana Vess, of course, is a more persistent threat that can also tutor but she does clash with the other version. Not enough room, though.
I also included the Spellbomb as extra GY hate -- White tutors can find it and it cantrips in matchups I don't need it. Grand Abolisher just seemed like a very strong hate card against Blue decks and combo protector.
For removal, I wanted a well-rounded suite. Living Death already serves as a Black sweeper and Jitte potential colorless removal, so it's okay for me to lean on White's generally better package in this department.
Vindicate is an obvious everything-answer, hitting even land. With tokens and ample sac outlets to abuse it, Grave Pact is broken as hell. Slip, Path, and StP are the pinnacle of cheap Instant removal. Revoke Existence is cheap and exiles both artifacts and enchantments.
After that, Seal of Cleansing looks underwhelming but I figured I'd try it out. Like a removal version of Animate Dead, it's recurrable with Sun Titan and searchable by White tutors. Terminus and Merciless Eviction are both tuck board wipes (and Eviction can situationally hit art/ench/PWs). Elesh Norn as a reanimation target can both wipe weenies and supercharge a token-fueled beatdown. Besides the first sweeper, these basically all serve as redundancies to the cards in the previous paragraph.
Gideon can be janky removal and also provides a Fog-type effect that can sometimes protect you where other answers cannot, so it seemed like a good inclusion. Karn is just a colorless answer to everything, including hand removal.
There are other options but at this point I feel I have enough answer cards. That just leaves me a few slots left for mana rocks and to fit the mana base to my color distribution.
Finally...
For mana rocks, I included both Moxen as others have in the past. Signet and Lantern seemed like the best remaining options for my last two slots. Signet is probably the best two-cost rock, with superior colorfixing and not entering tapped (relevant on Turn 3+). Lantern massively colorfixes by turning every land into a dual land.
Mana base, I included every dual that doesn't enter tapped and every fetch (which can find Godless Shrine and Scrubland). I figured I'd save the extra colorfixers, e.g. City of Brass, until I playtest and determine whether they're necessary.
Flagstones is a no-drawbacks include, likewise Eiganjo Castle even if its advantage probably isn't very useful. Outpost is too strong a situational token producer to not include and Mistveil Plains is sneaky recursion with all the tutors. Urborg and Tower are duh, Bog is uncounterable GY hate. Kor Haven is a strong utility to have for the price of producing colorless, unlike Maze of Ith. Wasteland should be obvious, Vesuva is always another dual at worst.
Cabal Coffers? Nobody else ever seemed to use it. I know it's a lot better in multiplayer, where you have more time to build a manabase, but I thought it seemed not to include when you're already running Urborg and have plenty enough basics that it isn't unreasonable to expect it to work anyway. I understand it's bad early but I wanted to see for myself how much it hurts, plus it's better than any mana rock as acceleration if you tutor for Urborg.
For some reason, the forum keeps randomly inserting an unnecessary spoiler tag in the middle of my manabase discussion. I don't know why and I can't seem to get it to go away.
I've only got to play about 12 games so far, a couple sets against my friend's Geist deck and half against a random Cockatrice opponent with Thrun jank. Here's some of my initial impressions:
Even without additional land fixers, colors couldn't be LESS problematic! Deck feels still slow, though, so the mana rocks should probably stay for acceleration. Land Tax and Wayfarer enable Mox Diamond but I don't like Chrome Mox much because there really aren't many cards in the deck I consistently want to imprint (I don't want to exile my reanimation targets), it just eats gas. It and the Signet/Lantern I could imagine becoming stronger, colorless accelerants like Everflowing Chalice and Thran Dynamo to speed the deck up. I'm even considering the Phyrexian Altar sac engine because it's a good accelerant with a token engine, even outside of enabling instant-win combos.
Cabal Coffers has been mediocre. I'm usually in no shortage of other land to play thanks to the two land tutors, so thus far I've avoided the pitfall of it manascrewing me early. On the other hand, with no way to force extra land drops it often takes too long to start significantly ramping, so it's not helping much either. I think it's a net positive still, no more unplayable in my experience than the deck having a problem with colorfixing, but it's a very small positive. Eiganjo Castle and Mistveil Plains have neither helped nor harmed at all but I think I have enough basics that they don't need to leave in fear of nonbasic land hate.
Cabal Therapy is ass. It's iffy if I actually get to hit anything without a token producer since none of my other discard peeks, furthermore Raven's Crime already has its utility functions (GY-castable, self-targetable for reanimation hijinks) and hits land. Raven's Crime is great, Cabal Therapy can go. Not sure what to replace it with though, possibly some other disruptive element since I think hand-checking is covered well enough. Many options there, from Orim's Chant to mass LD, Linvala, Stax cards... Blue decks still a pain, Planeswalkers still tough to answer though they always are.
Seal of Cleansing is meh, that can probably go. I imagine O-Ring as a replacement, since it's still fetchable by White tutors and Revoke is a better 2-CMC transmute for Arty/Ench removal. Gives me something to answer lone PWs too, though I hate that enchant removal stuffs it. Aura of Silence is safer but less versatile, Return to Dust is another option. It might be okay to use the slot for an entirely different purpose, since Vindicate / Eviction / Karn can always back up Revoke as noncreature removal.
Board wipes too expensive when I need them, and I do need them. Merciless Eviction can stay for the tuck and added versatility but without the one-mana tutors to setup Miracle, Terminus is rather lame. I should probably replace it with ***/Damnation as the cheapest sweepers available, even faster than Living Death when it's usable as one.
Still dunno what to think of Scroll Rack, ain't drawn it once yet and Skullclamp is a better tutor target. Haven't actually comboed out with Teysa yet, though once she did chump block a giant Dungrove Elder thrice so naked Iona could out-race it. ;/ It's usually Iona/Painter and I hit Lark/Guide once (Altar of Dementia edition). Hardcasted Griselbrand once! The redundant sac outlet may be unnecessary, could trade the crazy altar out for the Phyrexian variety since it's a better standalone card. Darkest Hour is almost definitely unnecessary, since it's only a redundancy in Teysa's combo (the third most likely win-con) and literally useless for any other purpose. All other combo pieces, sans Altar of Dementia, are good standalone cards. Even Nether Traitor can abuse Skullclamp.
Ain't seen Karn yet either but all the other PWs have been good. Ain't seen Living Death but the four targetted reanimators have all won games for me thus far. Not sure Nihil Spellbomb is necessary since there's enough other minor GY hate (Bog, Reanimate on enemy GY, Shred Memory is Instant speed if I need it for that). Shred Memory has been excellent, Dimir Machinations less so (and useless hardcast) but still probably good enough to keep around, Cruel Tutor might be tutor overkill being it's a three-spot and doesn't put into hand (especially if I dump Terminus). Equip package is fine as-is.
That's all I got so far. We'll see how things go as I develop it further. Oh! I almost forgot, getting stuck with reanimation targets in-hand: not a problem at all. I haven't even had to self-target with a discard spell to dump things either, which is always an option. Liliana is symmetrical but most of the time I've just overfilled with Skullclamp / Grissy / Land Tax and forced discard that way. On that note, don't use Reliquary Tower in this deck.
Terminus is only good with Cruel Tutor. French banlist means no Vampiric Tutor nor Imperial Seal
I'm not really sure about this comparison. Is that like saying Teysa is not competitive? Because Teysa can be quite strong, just by all the combos you have access to.
Anyhow, I've been playing Lingering Souls and have not been disappointed with it. It's four bodies for cheap, and gives you things to sac if need be.
Also Umezawa's Jitte has been invaluable to me. It just controls other aggressive decks so well, and its a stoneforge target.
One-Eyed Black | Orzhov Combo | Ooze Reanimator | Mindwheeling Pain
Hey MCR! Can we see a new list by chance? I have a multiplayer Ghost Council deck that I am going to switch over to a 1v1 Teysa list. =D
with extort soon to role out i think my vision of this deck will receive a significant boost in power.
Heya! I haven't been testing Teysa at all for the past...when was this primer written? 2 years ago? lol. Moondust has a new and fresher Teysa list that has been tuned for the evolved metagame. It looks quite good and I would like to work on it sometime in the future as a personal pet project. My funsies deck, for lack of better words
I would definitely consider playing BW in a tournament, but if my main goal is to win, I'd still pick a more sound general. That's not taking anything away from Teysa though - she'll just take a bit more work to win with!
The list is on the way. I'm not going to work on it right away as I have to tune a few other decks I've been working on.
I like that you've taken the time to look at the list, but this thing is seriously out of date. I mean, look at the amount of banned cards in it haha. The metagame has changed drastically, and so will the list. Again, Moondust has a pretty sick updated version that I will be tuning for fun soon.
Haha! Good catch! I didn't even notice this! It's crazy that people still find out new things about this deck years after its inception.
Sorry for the mega necro. All this talk about Obzedat made me want to revisit some old decklists. I think this one is a pretty fun one that's in dire need of an update. So again, let me contact Moondust and this thing should be dusted off and updated in the near future
One-Eyed Black | Orzhov Combo | Ooze Reanimator | Mindwheeling Pain
Oops! Didn't even see how old this thread was!
#necroed thread
By "gotten into Duel Commander" I mean I made a token attempt to modify my multiplayer list (removing banned 1v1 cards with similar goodstuff) to play a friend and got my ass beat hard when I realized that 1v1 is much too quick for the token-based MP list I run. Well, I won't stand for getting whooped that badly, so I had work to do.
Here's what I started with, using the French/DC ban list. Making liberal use of hide tags to keep what will be a very long post organized and easy-to-read.
1 Teysa, Orzhov Scion (duh)
Creature
1 Weathered Wayfarer
1 Academy Rector
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Grand Abolisher
1 Painter's Servant
1 Karmic Guide
1 Reveillark
1 Sun Titan
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Griselbrand
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
Artifact
1 Skullclamp
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Chrome Mox
1 Mox Diamond
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Scroll Rack
1 Blasting Station
1 Altar Of Dementia
1 Nihil Spellbomb
Enchantment
1 Darkest Hour
1 Land Tax
1 Grave Pact
1 Bitterblossom
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Animate Dead
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
1 Gideon Jura
1 Karn Liberated
Sorcery
1 Steelshaper's Gift
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Diabolic Intent
1 Grim Tutor
1 Beseech the Queen
1 Buried Alive
1 Cruel Tutor
1 Idyllic Tutor
1 Dimir Machinations
1 Reanimate
1 Victimize
1 Living Death
1 Unburial Rites
1 Raven's Crime
1 Cabal Therapy
1 Gerrard's Verdict
1 Hymn to Tourach
1 Revoke Existence
1 Vindicate
1 Terminus
1 Merciless Eviction
Instant
1 Entomb
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Shred Memory
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Path to Exile
1 Tragic Slip
1 Arid Mesa
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Marsh Flats
1 Windswept Heath
1 Caves of Koilos
1 Command Tower
1 Fetid Heath
1 Godless Shrine
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Scrubland
1 Tainted Field
1 Reflecting Pool
4 Plains
1 Flagstones of Trokair
1 Eiganjo Castle
1 Kjeldoran Outpost
1 Mistveil Plains
8 Swamp
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Kor Haven
1 Vesuva
1 Wasteland
I started by planning what I wanted to get out of the deck. The basic Teysa deck combos include:
1) TEYSA + Darkest Hour / Painter's Servant + sac outlet [+ dude to start the chain] = infinite whatever
e.g. Blasting Station = infinite pings
Altar of Dementia = infinite mill
Phyrexian Altar = infinite mana
Carrion Feeder = infinitely large dude
2) TEYSA + Nether Traitor + Phyrexian Altar = infinite mana
Bloodghast is gated by land drops. Reassembling Skeleton breaks even on mana (and Ashnod's Altar doesn't produce :symb:). Gravecrawler lacks other playable Zombies to enable.
3) Iona + Painter hard lock
4) Reveillark + Karmic Guide + sac outlet = infinite whatever
5) Yosei, the Morning Star + Recurring Nightmare soft lock
In the end, I decided to include 1, 3, 4 in my initial decklist. Why? Iona herself is a top-tier reanimation target and the Painter combo is the easiest one to pull off from there, so it's an easy inclusion. At this point, Teysa just needs a sac outlet to be included in the combo shenanigans and is a redundancy that beats GY hate.... also justifies use of Teysa as a general. ;/ Reveillark + Guide are good cards on their own and serve as a redundant combo that doesn't rely on Painter. Teysa herself can also be the sac outlet in that one, since they're all white creatures and she's 2 Power, for infinite removal (not a win).
Blasting Station is the sac outlet of choice because it wins on its own, Altar of Dementia was included as a protective redundancy. (Darkest Hour is also a tougher-to-answer redundancy to Painter in Teysa's combo.) Ashnod's and Phy. Altars don't win on their own, you need an additional mana dump to go with them while stuff like Feeder and Fallen Ideal require successfully swinging through.
I didn't include Combo #2 because it's basically a three-card combo. If you want to use Phyrexian Altar + :xmana:-spell as the gamewinner for #1 then you're just adding one more card (the Traitor), however that takes one more card to begin with (BS/AoD don't need the :xmana:-spell). Yosei wasn't included because he's simply an inferior reanimation option and Sun Titan is a better standalone option.
Where to start?
Reanimate: Slightly cheaper than other non-Enchant alternatives, MUCH cheaper than ones that target opponent's GY.
Animate Dead: Better than Dance of the Dead if you're not comboing out since it doesn't cost you two mana per turn to keep swinging in, else equivalent. Better than Exhume and Soul Exchange for reasons I will explain below.
Victimize: Gets two dudes out at once, aka grabs both Iona and Painter after a Buried Alive or if hardcast Painter gets removed.
Unburial Rites: Can be cast from GY with Flashback, handy with Entomb.
Living Death: Gets multiple dudes at once. Big bonus is it doubles as a sweeper, the fact it's Black is even better since most sweepers are white in case Iona is turned against me.
Those are the ones I included with reasons. Why Animate Dead over the two-mana Sorceries? I like having the Enchant available. It can be found by White's tutors, so it's easier to dig for, and as a permanent it can be recurred by Sun Titan. Like Unburial Rites being GY-castable, it just gives me more options. Necromancy and Recurring Nightmare are usable too but I have enough reanimators at this point.
Shred Memory and Dimir Machinations are included solely for their power as Transmute tutors. I felt they find enough relevant cards to be useful, including a hard tutor if you just need something they can't grab and Shred Memory can also be GY hate in a pinch.
Shred Memory finds (2 CMC): Altar, Signet, Scroll Rack, Jitte, Grand Abolisher, Painter, Stoneforge Mystic, Animate Dead, Bitterblossom, Seal of Cleansing, Gerrard's Verdict, Hymn to Tourach, Revoke Existence + other tutors
Dimir Machinations finds (3 CMC): Blasting Station, Chromatic Lantern, Sword, Phyrexian Arena, Liliana2, Buried Alive, Victimize, Vindicate + other tutors
Both of them find combo pieces, ramp, answers, and disruption. Dimir House Guard (4 CMC) and Brainspoil (5 CMC) don't find enough other useful cards to be included. They also can't grab other tutors if you absolutely need a card you can't transmute for.
Skullclamp is pretty dumb when you're producing tokens like Teysa can and, well, Griselbrand in a reanimator deck... by far the two strongest draw engines. Phyrexian Arena is the next obvious pick, consistent and grabable with Rector. Sadly Necropotence is banned. :/
Stoneforge Mystic serves as a Skullclamp tutor and doubles as a sac outlet for various purposes (some tutors and starting combo engines), Steelshaper's Gift is another one. Jitte and SoFaF are alternative targets so the tutors aren't dead if I already have 'clamp. Jitte I feel serves an important purpose. It greatly enables a Plan B to victory, simply aggroing out. It can also gain life if I get low from Grissy / BB / enemy attacks and is colorless removal in the face of pro-white/black or Iona. SoFaF is a strong accelerant plus hand disruption if allowed to hit.
I've honestly never liked Scroll Rack but I decided to give it a chance since everyone else seems to love it and it plays well with Land Tax + Wayfarer. Probably better than any of Black's "Draw X for X life" Sorceries at any rate. Land Tax and Wayfarer are obviously great. Bob and Dark Tutelage were passed on the fear I would probably kill myself too quickly between expensive reanimation targets and other life drain effects.
After that?
At this point, I just need some disruption and removal to finish. Since a lot of people in the past have stated the importance of discard (hand disruption) to beat blue and slow down faster combo decks, I started there. Ultimately, I included these:
Liliana of the Veil: Repeatable and tough to answer, the symmetrical nature can be abused with reanimation targets or ignored with Land Tax or Skullclamp going strong. She can also edict, versatility!
Cabal Therapy: Flashback ensures the 1-for-1 if nothing else, the fact it can 2fer and be cast off Entomb is why I choose it over other 1-CMC options.
Raven's Crime: Hits land and fueled by Land Tax and Wayfarer, it might be the single best discard spell for this deck.
Gerrard's Verdict: 2fer for two mana, minor source of lifegain.
Hymn to Tourach: 2fer for two mana and random discard.
Sword: If it connects. ;[
Basically, I just chose the most efficient discard spells but there are still many more options out there. I can understand the appeal of the targetted ones, like Thoughtseize, as they're safer bets for slowing down the opponent's early plays but I like the versatility of the two I chose. At 2+ CMC, I don't understand why anyone would still play cards like Castigate" target="blank">Castigate when there's actual card advantage to be had from GV/Hymn. I don't like the two dudes, Tidehollow Sculler and Mesmeric Fiend, for their temporary nature and their bodies aren't necessary to jumpstart Teysa's combo when I have token engines, though they do have some advantages as well. They're mean with Sun Titan and a sac engine, plus Sculler is an Artifact.
Other options I like are Stupor and Bog Down with the advantage on Mind Rot clones. Sadistic Hypnotist is expensive but the best mass dump if it gets through, plus it's a reanimate target. Identity Crisis is perhaps cost-prohibitive but doubles as GY hate. Liliana Vess, of course, is a more persistent threat that can also tutor but she does clash with the other version. Not enough room, though.
I also included the Spellbomb as extra GY hate -- White tutors can find it and it cantrips in matchups I don't need it. Grand Abolisher just seemed like a very strong hate card against Blue decks and combo protector.
For removal, I wanted a well-rounded suite. Living Death already serves as a Black sweeper and Jitte potential colorless removal, so it's okay for me to lean on White's generally better package in this department.
Vindicate is an obvious everything-answer, hitting even land. With tokens and ample sac outlets to abuse it, Grave Pact is broken as hell. Slip, Path, and StP are the pinnacle of cheap Instant removal. Revoke Existence is cheap and exiles both artifacts and enchantments.
After that, Seal of Cleansing looks underwhelming but I figured I'd try it out. Like a removal version of Animate Dead, it's recurrable with Sun Titan and searchable by White tutors. Terminus and Merciless Eviction are both tuck board wipes (and Eviction can situationally hit art/ench/PWs). Elesh Norn as a reanimation target can both wipe weenies and supercharge a token-fueled beatdown. Besides the first sweeper, these basically all serve as redundancies to the cards in the previous paragraph.
Gideon can be janky removal and also provides a Fog-type effect that can sometimes protect you where other answers cannot, so it seemed like a good inclusion. Karn is just a colorless answer to everything, including hand removal.
There are other options but at this point I feel I have enough answer cards. That just leaves me a few slots left for mana rocks and to fit the mana base to my color distribution.
Finally...
Mana base, I included every dual that doesn't enter tapped and every fetch (which can find Godless Shrine and Scrubland). I figured I'd save the extra colorfixers, e.g. City of Brass, until I playtest and determine whether they're necessary.
Cabal Coffers? Nobody else ever seemed to use it. I know it's a lot better in multiplayer, where you have more time to build a manabase, but I thought it seemed not to include when you're already running Urborg and have plenty enough basics that it isn't unreasonable to expect it to work anyway. I understand it's bad early but I wanted to see for myself how much it hurts, plus it's better than any mana rock as acceleration if you tutor for Urborg.
I've only got to play about 12 games so far, a couple sets against my friend's Geist deck and half against a random Cockatrice opponent with Thrun jank. Here's some of my initial impressions:
Even without additional land fixers, colors couldn't be LESS problematic! Deck feels still slow, though, so the mana rocks should probably stay for acceleration. Land Tax and Wayfarer enable Mox Diamond but I don't like Chrome Mox much because there really aren't many cards in the deck I consistently want to imprint (I don't want to exile my reanimation targets), it just eats gas. It and the Signet/Lantern I could imagine becoming stronger, colorless accelerants like Everflowing Chalice and Thran Dynamo to speed the deck up. I'm even considering the Phyrexian Altar sac engine because it's a good accelerant with a token engine, even outside of enabling instant-win combos.
Cabal Coffers has been mediocre. I'm usually in no shortage of other land to play thanks to the two land tutors, so thus far I've avoided the pitfall of it manascrewing me early. On the other hand, with no way to force extra land drops it often takes too long to start significantly ramping, so it's not helping much either. I think it's a net positive still, no more unplayable in my experience than the deck having a problem with colorfixing, but it's a very small positive. Eiganjo Castle and Mistveil Plains have neither helped nor harmed at all but I think I have enough basics that they don't need to leave in fear of nonbasic land hate.
Cabal Therapy is ass. It's iffy if I actually get to hit anything without a token producer since none of my other discard peeks, furthermore Raven's Crime already has its utility functions (GY-castable, self-targetable for reanimation hijinks) and hits land. Raven's Crime is great, Cabal Therapy can go. Not sure what to replace it with though, possibly some other disruptive element since I think hand-checking is covered well enough. Many options there, from Orim's Chant to mass LD, Linvala, Stax cards... Blue decks still a pain, Planeswalkers still tough to answer though they always are.
Seal of Cleansing is meh, that can probably go. I imagine O-Ring as a replacement, since it's still fetchable by White tutors and Revoke is a better 2-CMC transmute for Arty/Ench removal. Gives me something to answer lone PWs too, though I hate that enchant removal stuffs it. Aura of Silence is safer but less versatile, Return to Dust is another option. It might be okay to use the slot for an entirely different purpose, since Vindicate / Eviction / Karn can always back up Revoke as noncreature removal.
Board wipes too expensive when I need them, and I do need them. Merciless Eviction can stay for the tuck and added versatility but without the one-mana tutors to setup Miracle, Terminus is rather lame. I should probably replace it with ***/Damnation as the cheapest sweepers available, even faster than Living Death when it's usable as one.
Still dunno what to think of Scroll Rack, ain't drawn it once yet and Skullclamp is a better tutor target. Haven't actually comboed out with Teysa yet, though once she did chump block a giant Dungrove Elder thrice so naked Iona could out-race it. ;/ It's usually Iona/Painter and I hit Lark/Guide once (Altar of Dementia edition). Hardcasted Griselbrand once! The redundant sac outlet may be unnecessary, could trade the crazy altar out for the Phyrexian variety since it's a better standalone card. Darkest Hour is almost definitely unnecessary, since it's only a redundancy in Teysa's combo (the third most likely win-con) and literally useless for any other purpose. All other combo pieces, sans Altar of Dementia, are good standalone cards. Even Nether Traitor can abuse Skullclamp.
Ain't seen Karn yet either but all the other PWs have been good. Ain't seen Living Death but the four targetted reanimators have all won games for me thus far. Not sure Nihil Spellbomb is necessary since there's enough other minor GY hate (Bog, Reanimate on enemy GY, Shred Memory is Instant speed if I need it for that). Shred Memory has been excellent, Dimir Machinations less so (and useless hardcast) but still probably good enough to keep around, Cruel Tutor might be tutor overkill being it's a three-spot and doesn't put into hand (especially if I dump Terminus). Equip package is fine as-is.
That's all I got so far. We'll see how things go as I develop it further. Oh! I almost forgot, getting stuck with reanimation targets in-hand: not a problem at all. I haven't even had to self-target with a discard spell to dump things either, which is always an option. Liliana is symmetrical but most of the time I've just overfilled with Skullclamp / Grissy / Land Tax and forced discard that way. On that note, don't use Reliquary Tower in this deck.